Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Paul Krugman is a popular guy these days. The American economist was
awarded a Nobel prize in Economics this year. In a recent interview I
heard Krugman say that no one person is responsible for America’s
current financial crisis. But, he said former Federal Reserve chairman
Alan Greenspan certainly deserves a lot of the responsibility.

As for Greenspan, he spoke this past week before Congress and said he
was “in a state of shocked disbelief” about what has happened to the
economy. He further stated: “This crisis, however, has turned out to be
much broader than anything I could have imagined.”

Greenspan went on to blame the crisis on “explosive demand by
investors around the world” for what were (at one time) very profitable
mortgage backed securities. To feed the great demand for these
investment vehicles, mortgage lenders started giving mortgages to people
who, under normal circumstances, would never have been able to get such
loans. As a result, the securities being bought by investors all over
the world were tainted with what is now known as “toxic assets.”

Meanwhile (and, incredibly) these risky securities were being rated
as relatively safe and sure investments. When it came to light that they
were not so safe and sure, the house of cards started to fall, and it
is still falling.

How could bad investments be rated as good investments? According to
Greenspan: “The whole intellectual edifice… collapsed… because the data
inputted into the risk management models generally covered only the past
two decades, a period of euphoria.”

A transgender school teacher has been given a payout of $60,000
after complaining of being harassed by colleagues for over a year who
allegedly “misgendered” her, despite an official investigation stating
otherwise.

Leo Soell, who works as a fifth grade teacher at Gresham-Barlow
school in Oregon, submitted a complaint to Oregon district officials
that she had been “harassed” by colleagues after coming out as transgender last September.

In the complaint, she claimed that her co-workers continually called
her “she,” “lady,” and “Miss Soell,” while other staff had conspired to
stop her using a gender neutral bathroom, despite the school hosting an
hour long training session on transgender issues.

I predicted that Donald Trump was going to win the GOP nomination
before the Iowa caucus. I even predicted that he might run the table.
While he didn’t run the table as I overly enthusiastically suggested at
one point, he came closer to running the table than he did to imploding
as all the smarts were predicting. The reason I was confident Trump was
going to win the nomination was because he had been leading in the
primary polls since shortly after he announced, and that support, while
it trended up and down somewhat, was relatively stable and seemingly
impervious to attacks on the candidate. The assumption that he was
inevitably going to implode was always based on wishful thinking by the
same pundits who were too blind to see the Trump phenomenon coming and
incapable of truly understanding it.

For all the justifiable press coverage of Barack Obama's federal
guidance on transgender students in the public schools, its most
dangerous provision has largely gone unnoticed – and it has nothing to
do with bathrooms.

The most outrageous provision of his transgender bathroom order does
not even involve locker rooms, where teenagers of the opposite sex will
change and shower next to one another.

The most offensive part of the new policy is that, under the Obama administration's federal guidance:

School districts must allow biological males and females to spend the night together in the same hotel room on field trips;

Colleges must let men who say they are transgender be roommates with one or more women; and

School officials cannot even tell those young women or their parents
in advance that their new roommate is a man, without risking a federal
lawsuit.

The plain wording of the Obama administration's diktat is clear enough, yet it has not been reported, even by conservative news outlets.

We hail this volume as a beautiful presage of the future of the South
in the department of poetry In saying that it is worthy of the author,
who, for several years past, has been a brilliant star in the literary
firmament of the South, we give it the highest praise. Dr. Holcombe, in a
succession of psychological works, connecting in golden links the
noblest and most attractive features of two worlds, has carried English
prose style to a high degree of perfection.

His mind is at once logical and creative; but, like all fine writers
who have preceded him, he has evidently conned models upon models, and
passed through stages of laborious training. All well-balanced minds
familiarize themselves with the attainments of the past before they
strike out new paths for themselves. In pursuing this course, Dr.
Holcombe has only accommodated himself to those inevitable laws of
mental and moral progress, the observance of which is sure to secure for
the philosopher, the scholar, and the poet, the highest practicable
triumphs.

Half a century ago the Englishman, with a curl of contempt upon his
lips, and the shred of a laurel on his brow, asked, with an air of
triumph that brooked no response, “Who reads an American book?”

Remembrance

To die for one’s country is not only an act of bravery, it is THE act of bravery. For soldiers, it is just an extension of their military career, a part of their duty. As leaders have asked their soldiers to sacrifice themselves for the good of the society, it is only right for leaders to go through the same motion. They should practice what they have preached.

As war is seen as a noble act, tu sat serves as redemption in case of defeat. It is also a way to tell the enemy: “You might have won the battle/war but you don’t deserve to win because you don’t have the chinh nghia (just cause).” And it is not only just cause: it is the moral belief that the cause they are fighting for deserves their total sacrifice. Continues below

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Core Creek Militia

==============================My sixth great grandfather, his wife, and five of his six children were killed in battle with the Tuscarora Indians at Core Creek, NC.

The Seven Blackbirds

==============================My third great grandfather was an Ensign in the Revolutionary War, and saved his unit's flag after being wounded at the Battle of Brandywine. He was also at Kingston (Kinston), Wilmington, Charleston, Two Sisters and Augusta. He was at the defeat at Brier Creek and also Bee Creek.

Requiem Aeternam -
Eternal Rest Grant unto Them
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My second great grandfather was killed in action on May 3, 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
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My great grandfather and great uncle knew all the men in the "Civil War Requiem" video as they were part of the 53rd NC which was the sole unit defending Fort Mahone. (Fort Mahone was named "Fort Damnation" by the Yankees) *Handpicked men of the 53rd (My great grandfather was one of these) made the final, night assault at Petersburg in an attempt to break Grant's line. This was against Fort Stedman which was a few miles to the slight northeast. They initially succeeded, but reinforcements drove them back. This video is made from photographs which were taken the day after the 53rd evacuated the lines the night before to begin the retreat to Appomattox. I have many more pictures taken by the same photographer, one of these shows a 14 year old boy and the other is the famous picture of the blond, handsome soldier with his musket.
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*General Gordon promised the men a gold medal and 30 days leave if they accomplished their task and many years after the War my great grandfather wrote General Gordon, who was then governor of Georgia about this incident. They exchanged several letters which I have framed. See first link below.
===========================
*The Attack On Fort Stedman
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"His Colored Friends"
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Lee's Surrender
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My Black NC Kinfolks
============================
Punished For Being Caught!

Great Grandfather Koonce

He was a drummer boy in the WBTS, survived the War only to die a few years later. He was caught in an ice storm on his way home, but instead of seeking shelter, continued on his horse until the end. His clothes had to be cut off and he died a few days later.